Plants are growing in Seth Boyden’s Strawberry Fields garden, of course, but children’s imaginations and understanding of the natural world are growing, too. The garden has never been empty this year, with the Garden Committee heading up a cadre of volunteers to make the garden a
beehive of activity.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, children visit the garden at recess. They are building a fairy village ringed by tree stumps and tasting local herbs and honey. The younger children explore the garden as “garden detectives,” discovering worms and root vegetables under the soil.
The herb garden outside the kindergarten portables is now home to a colony of monarch caterpillars, who are neighbors to a new sundial. Students visit the caterpillars when they study the shadows cast by the sundial with their classes. Nearby, the community garden is being transformed into a covered winter garden, where spinach, carrots and swiss chard can grow, protected from the elements.
Both lunch aides and parents are being trained so that they can guide children in experiencing the garden. Maggie Tuohy is developing a written guide so parents at each grade level can work on age-appropriate activities with children in the garden. Home Depot generously provided a discount on a garden shed that will house books, paints, seeds and other learning tools. Classes are busy planting, experimenting with soil types and building greenhouses. Every part of the Seth Boyden community is enjoying the garden and learning from it.
